Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025
Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025 reauthorizes and updates the core NOAA weather research and forecasting authorities that were set in the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017. The bill116 aims to boost weather science, forecasting accuracy, and warning timeliness; expand the use and sharing of weather data by the private sector; and modernize weather communication to the public. Key features include increased and organized funding through 2026–2030 for NOAA’s weather programs, new and expanded research programs (including tornado, hurricane, and tsunami initiatives), and a shift toward more proactive, impact-based decision support for safety and economic resilience. It also emphasizes advanced computing, artificial intelligence, and private-sector partnerships to improve modeling, data assimilation, and forecast products, while ensuring robust, timely dissemination of severe weather information to the public and core partners. The bill also broadens coordination across federal agencies, strengthens tsunami and coastal hazard programs, modernizes weather radio and hazard communications, and expands weather information relevant to agriculture and water management. Several sections authorize or encourage closer collaboration with industry, universities, and other federal entities, while adding reporting requirements to Congress on progress, standardization of products, and evaluation of new capabilities (such as polar-orbiting satellite options and next‑generation data systems).
Key Points
- 1Public safety priority and timely, impact-based information
- 2- Requires the Under Secretary to ensure NOAA focuses on accurate, timely forecasts and disseminates critical weather information and decision-support tools through nimble, flexible channels to the public and core partners.
- 3Reauthorized funding for weather research and forecasting (2026–2030)
- 4- Specific annual funding levels and program breakdowns (e.g., weather laboratories/cooperative institutes, United States Weather Research Program, tornado/severe weather and radar research, and joint technology transfer) with a ceiling on overall funding for the title.
- 5Expanded weather research programs and observations
- 6- Reauthorizes and updates programs for tornadoes (VORTEX), hurricanes, tsunami warnings/education, and observing systems planning/simulation.
- 7- Encourages innovative observations and the use of new sensing tools, including private-sector or hosted instruments on commercial platforms.
- 8Commercial data and data management
- 9- Creates/strengthens programs to involve commercial weather and environmental observations, with guidelines on data assimilation, management, sharing, and avoiding duplication.
- 10- Emphasizes data quality, metadata access, and alignment with broader data‑policy laws.
- 11Advanced computing, AI, and centers of excellence
- 12- Establishes a Computing Resources Prioritization and a Computing Research Initiative (potentially using DOE HPC/cloud resources) to run advanced models and compare against current forecasts.
- 13- Encourages AI/ML, quantum computing, data assimilation improvements, and the creation of centers of excellence to accelerate adoption and workforce development.
- 14- Allows multi-year contracts with appropriate protections and authorizes a sunset (termination) period after five years.
- 15Ocean, coastal, and tsunami risk modernization
- 16- Reauthorizes and expands tsunami warning/education authorities, including data management, GNSS collaborations, coastal elevation models, and standardized product development.
- 17- Adds requirements for annual progress reporting and for aligning tsunami warning centers with national systems and back-up capabilities.
- 18Observing system planning and improvements
- 19- Requires consideration of private-sector options, cost-benefit analyses, and a report on placing a polar-orbiting weather satellite in an early-morning orbit to support the weather enterprise.
- 20Public communications and education
- 21- Includes improvements to National Weather Service communications, NOAA Weather Radio modernization, and post-storm assessments, with emphasis on risk communication research and engagement.
- 22Agriculture, water management, and drought information
- 23- Expands access to weather/climate information for farming and water planning; strengthens the National Integrated Drought Information System and related networks.